CB360 Composite National Rankings #5 (full update)

With full conference play around the corner, the SEC steadily is emerging as the clearcut leader among the nation’s college baseball conferences. SEC teams hold down four of the top-7 spots – #1 Florida, #2 Vanderbilt, #5 South Carolina and #7 LSU – in the most-recent update of CB360’s exlusive Composite Natonal Rankings. front-page photo courtesy of LSU

Florida and Vanderbilt also were 1-2 in the CNR the previous week, while SC has slipped back one position and LSU moved up six spots (from #13) after an impressive sweep of Cal State Fullerton. Elsewhere in the top-10: Oklahoma dropped from #3 to #6 (after a loss to Arkansas-Little Rock) … Florida State bumped up from #5 to #3 … Arizona State dropped from #6 to #8 … Fullerton dropped from #7 to #11 … current #9 Clemson fell one spot … and #9 TCU slipped outside the top-10 (#12). In addition to LSU, Virginia has cracked the top-10 (rising from #11 all the way to #4) while Texas is back in the top-10 (after moving up two spots from #12).

We’re only one month into the 2011 season, but nearly all of the SEC’s 12 teams already have spent at least one week in the CB360 top-50 (all but Kentucky).

The CNR formula now includes Boyd Nation’s “Pseudo-RPI” (with the BN preseason predicted strength-of-schedule dropping out of the criteria). Note that other RPI-type factors (BN’s Iterative Strength Ratings, Warren Nolan RPI and NRPI, and even the official NCAA RPI) will be phased into the CNR formula over the next few weeks (RPI numbers will become more accurate/useful as the sample of games continues to grow).

College Baseball 2011 Composite National Rankings #5 (CNR)courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; March 15, 2011

RANK

TEAM

POINTS

Week-3

Week-2

Week-1

2011 Preseason

1

Florida

99.41

1

1

2

2

2

Vanderbilt

95.80

2

2

3

4

3

Florida State

95.62

5

6

10

12

4

Virginia

95.07

11

13

14

15

5

South Carolina

94.78

4

5

7

9

6

Oklahoma

93.93

3

3

5

5

7

LSU

92.43

13

14

16

19

8

Arizona State

89.04

6

7

8

10

9

Clemson

85.60

8

8

9

7

10

Texas

84.03

12

11

6

6

11

Cal State Fullerton

83.69

7

10

11

8

12

TCU

83.44

9

9

4

3

13

Texas A&M

82.56

17

15

15

14

14

Fresno State

81.54

19

19

31

32

15

North Carolina

81.10

16

21

23

30

16

Arizona

80.97

14

17

17

18

17

Stanford

79.49

15

12

12

13

18

Arkansas

79.36

22

26

27

29

19

Georgia Tech

79.19

20

25

24

23

20

Baylor

76.25

30

31

30

25

21

UCLA

76.09

10

4

1

1

22

Tulane

75.40

31

-

41

38

23

California

71.11

24

20

26

24

24

Rice

69.03

18

18

18

17

25

College of Charleston

65.91

26

27

29

26

26

UC Irvine

65.88

23

22

28

28

27

Auburn

65.73

21

23

22

22

28

Louisville

62.76

25

30

25

27

29

Connecticut

59.85

28

28

20

16

30

Oregon State

56.29

36

38

39

44

31

Coastal Carolina

55.76

32

35

21

21

32

Mississippi

53.90

37

32

38

43

33

Troy

52.85

44

-

47

–

34

Southeastern Louisiana

51.36

-

34

-

-

35

Oregon

50.96

27

16

13

11

36

Wichita State

50.77

29

29

33

33

37

Stetson

49.73

-

-

-

-

38

Southern Mississippi

49.25

41

45

46

39

East Tennessee

48.59

-

-

-

-

40

Oklahoma State

48.44

38

44

41

Texas State

-

-

-

-

42

East Carolina

48.35

-

50

47

–

43

UNLV

46.39

-

-

-

-

44

Kansas State

46.01

39

46

42

40

45

James Madison

45.57

33

47

47

–

45

Central Florida

45.57

41

43

45

47

47

Tennessee

44.97

-

-

-

-

48

Elon

44.70

-

-

-

-

49

Michigan State

44.53

-

-

-

-

50

Georgia

44.15

-

-

-

-

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA:CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula currently is centered around seven core ingredients but in upcoming weeks will include upwards of 20 different factors – ultimately combining a diverse collection of “experts” (ranging from coaches, various media, computer calculations and projections) – to help provide a preview of teams that could be in the running for the 2011 NCAA Championship field (hypothetically 50 teams, plus 14 others from lower-rated automatic-bid conferences – those teams will be projected in upcoming CNR updates).

Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating/projection (60 pts for #1; 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB) and the RPI ratings, the CNR adjusts to reward teams that have larger margins in the voting/point totals (whereas two teams with nearly the same voting-point total will be closer in the CNR allotment for that poll). Note that strength-of-schedule typically is factored into RPI formulations … thus the actual SOS numbers are not used in the CNR when RPI already are in the mix. For the NCAA field projections used later in the season, teams will be awarded CNR points based on their respective seedings, “last in” and “last out,” etc.

Currently, the seven polls/ratings listed below are averaged, with 40 points then are added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark. The CB360 Composite National Rankings will add factors to the formula throughout the 2011 season, with the additions to include various RPI/power rankings, NCAA Tournament projections and a late-season bonus/penalty for record over the past-10 games.